Record Breaking!

The Earth’s atmosphere broke a record that has stood for about 3 million years. It’s CO2. In May 2013, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Energy and Sustainability ServicesAdministration recorded an atmospheric CO2 level of 400 PPM at the Earth System Research Lab at Mauna Loa (they test there because it’s far from major sources of industrial pollution). In 1966 when I was born, CO2 was 320 PPM. We now sit at 125% of that.

Global temperatures have risen 1.8 degrees since the start of the industrial revolution and the general scientific community believes that 2 degrees is the ‘Tipping Point’ that we must not exceed. Weather patterns change creating more powerful storms, tornados, floods, droughts, etc. The scientific world agree that this is due to human activity. I believe it is caused by one thing only – Consumerism.

“But what can I do?” If we all focus on consuming less of everything every day, we use fewer resources. If we eliminate wasteful activities, we use fewer resources. If we focus on our needs instead of our wants, we use fewer resources. If we thought about the real impact of our decisions, wouldn’t we use fewer resources? I challenge you to 3 thoughts to think about every day: